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Join Maine mandolin luminaries Ethan Setiawan & Joe K. Walsh for a night of mandolin duets on Peaks Island. The pair will be playing selections from Ethan's new album, Encyclopedia Mandolinnica, along with tunes drawing from bluegrass, jazz, and everything in the middle. On his new record, “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica”, award-winning instrumentalist Ethan Setiawan explores the many possibilities of mandolin music through duets and trios with his friends, mentors, and heroes. Taking inspiration from albums like Darol Anger’s “Diary of a Fiddler”, and Mike Barnett’s “+1”, which are both made up of fiddle duets with a variety of collaborators, the breadth of Setiawan’s ambitious project is brought into focus through a stripped-down mandolin ensemble format, allowing the instrument itself to take center stage. Originally from Goshen, Indiana, Ethan Setiawan tried out numerous instruments before finding his way to the mandolin, making a name for himself when he won both the National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS and the Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. He attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. Years later, Setiawan has become a leading voice of the mandolin, his path wending its way through traditional bluegrass, to Bach partitas, and free jazz. He performs regularly with his progressive bluegrass band Fine Ground, and Scottish fusion duo Hildaland.
Hailed by David Grisman as a “wonderful mandolin player”, and by Darol Anger as “one of the finest mandolin players ever”, Portland, Maine-based musician Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his collaborations and recordings with acoustic music luminaries including Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Grant Gordy, Molly Tuttle, Sam Grisman, Mike Block, Danny Barnes, Scott Nygaard, Matt Flinner, Mike Marshall’s Ger Mandolin Ensemble, and pop-grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow, a band he co-founded. After a number of award-winning years with bluegrass stars the Gibson Brothers, Joe currently splits his time between the stylistically-omnivorous string band Mr Sun (featuring Darol Anger, Grant Gordy and Aidan O’Donnell), the Mike Block Trio, a duo with Matt Flinner, and a trio with Ella Jordan and Jed Wilson. His most recent solo record “Trust and Love” was released in 2025 on Adhyaropa Records, which also released his previous record ”If Not Now, Who?”.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Peaks Island, Portland, Maine, United States
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